Arrrggghhh, PIRATES!

When I heard Gideon Defoe’s book, The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists, was being adapted into a stop-motion animation film by the highly revered Aardman Animations, I was extremely excited.

The Pirate Captain from The Pirates! Band of Misfits movie. Image: Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Source: Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Australia.

After almost a year of anticipation, The Pirates! Band of Misfits opens in cinemas today in Victoria and Queensland, 5 April nationally, and I can’t wait! Why am I so excited? Well, for two main reasons:

Aardman are famous for creating two of the world’s greatest inventors, Wallace and Gromit. At Scienceworks, we’re not only busy preparing the jumbo crates to send the animatronic dinosaurs from our Explore-a-saurus exhibition to Scitech, Perth, we’re also busy preparing for our next exhibition, Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention. More about that exhibition another time, lad.

While researching for this blog post, I was fascinated to learn that The Pirates! movie took Aardman over five years to create - two years of scripting, one and a half years of storyboarding, designing and building puppets and sets, one and a half years of shooting and a final thre months of post-production to stick it all together. Phew! That’s about the same amount of time it takes to develop some of Museum Victoria’s major exhibitions.

2. My love for stop motion animation film

I adore stop motion animation film. I love the attention to detail. The little figures in their little costumes holding little props standing in little sets, all meticulously handmade and painstakingly moved a fraction of a centimetre at a time, that magically culminates in living, breathing characters acting out wonderful and moving storylines.

For The Pirates! it took 70 talented model makers to make over 250 puppets, including 23 background pirates, 18 background scientist characters and 55 special characters. Check out this behind the scenes video from Aardman on ‘Puppet Maintenance’ during the making of The Pirates! movie.

Arrrrggghhh, now for the fun part - the giveaway. And it's just for you, me hearties!

WIN The Pirates! Booty Pack

From the creators of Wallace and Gromit, The Pirates! Band of Misfits film opens in cinemas this Thursday 5 April. Image: Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Source: Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Australia.

To celebrate the movie coming to Australia (and really, to start the ‘Wallace & Gromit are moving in to Scienceworks in May’ celebrations), we’re giving away ten The Pirates! Booty Packs to MV Blog readers.

Each Booty Pack is packed with cool The Pirates! treasure including a digital watch, activity kit, stationery set and a copy of the The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists (a book more suitable for big kids).

To be in the running to win, simply leave a comment on this post telling us which scientist (or historian) would you love to go on an adventure with and why. Submit your comment before 9am, Friday 6 April. We’ll select 10 of our favourite scurvy dog answers.

So get cracking and tell us about your dream adventure!

P.S. A big thank you to Sony Pictures Australia for providing us with this awesome Booty Pack of The Pirates! treasure to giveaway to you! And, if you want to win tickets to see the film, make sure you follow Scienceworks on Facebook and Twitter.

P.S.S. Don't miss hearing David Tennant as Charles Darwin in the film too! Swoon!

Edward Said would be my historian of choice. Anyone that can make you stop and question your own values, that of your culture, while exploring the significance of another's values and culture is a talented educator.

I'd love to go on an adventure with Donald Thompson, studying the animals of Northern Australia. I volunteered at the Museum Victoria (Mammalogy Department) many years ago and worked on preserved specimens that Thompson collected. I would have loved to see the animals alive in their native habitat, rather than preserved in alcohol.

John Harrison - not a scientist as such, but a watchmaker who solved one of the greatest scientific problems of all time - longitude. To go on a voyage with him and one his 'timekeepers' would be fascinating and life changing.

Captain James Cook , would be an adventure to go on with because history was made ..., Our beauitful place Australia was born .. we call it home , thanks for being the first to see and discovery it when you landed on , just knowing what it was like to see it and how he felt when he saw it for the first time . it has changed heaps i wish that he could see it now with his own eyes , thanks for finding me place called home it means alot of everyone xoxox

Nikola Tesla would be my co-adventurer of choice... he was into some next-level stuff, know what I'm saying? Pretty sure he could, like, travel to other dimensions or something. And if movies are to be believed, he'd bear a striking resemblance to David Bowie.

I would like to go with Nicholas copernicus to wonderland to look at the stars.he could tell me the names of the stars.In the morning we could go to a tea party.the next day we could chase the rabbit to the queen of hearts.

Albert Einstein...everywhere you adventure with Albert Einstein would be an adventure in itself. It would be so interesting to get an insight into his brilliant analytical mind. He not only is a great Physicist, but also a great Mathematician...and I love numbers ! Quote: ‘The important thing is to not stop questioning’....ahhh....E = mc2

Thomas Crapper,,, It would be amazing to listen to all of stories and how he came up with the idea of the toilet! It would be like; 'You know it would be cool if you could sit down and you know... do your business and press a button and it just disappears.... LOL